May 17 2006
what if God was a DJ?
Popularity: 13% [?]
May 17 2006
Jesus, Jazz & Community
The Jazz Theologian has done it again . His post looking and the synergy between Christian community and jazz ensembles is profound and thought provoking. One person should not be that brilliant 
He quotes Ann Pederson, Associate Professor of Religion on jazz community
"Jam sessions set the musicians free to take risks. Diverse cross sections of people come together to just play and learn from one another. The jam session remains an open system where diverse people with diverse talents can come together to learn." "Learning occurs individually through the support of the jazz community. ‘Overall, the jazz community’s educational system sets the students on paths of development directly related to their goal: the creation of a unique improvisational voice with the jazz tradition.’ The jazz community exemplifies the constant struggle between leadership and following, interdependence and individual freedom. The goal of a jazz community is to find the balance where the individual’s freedom to improvise is grounded in the support of the ensemble. The individual plays freely but within the group. Limits are set for the dynamic of freedom." "…the group lends its support as each member learns to discover her or his own musical voice."
Then he asks How’d you like to learn to follow Jesus in that kind of environment?
My response I would love to learn to follow Jesus in that kind of a setting. Wat he describes is the very essence of the covenant community that is at the center of the theological expression in which I was trained. each individual is valued and recognized as a child of God with unique gifts perspectives and expressions of God’s image but interdependent on each other to fully express and reach our potential as God created us.
Too bad most Christian community isn’t like that. I need to think about how my faith community can move more intentionally in that direction.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Apr 28 2006
R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe on faith
Michale Stipe from R.E.M. and producer of the movie Saved! talks about faith in a great interview I came across after reading a blurb on it in Relevant magazine. Here is a snippet.
Faith in general–and I am speaking about Christian faith in particular because it’s what I’m most familiar with–is an individual thing. But I think it’s easy to get lost in it and to maybe allow other people to tell you what is and is not right. I think a true Christian, and I’ll use my parents as the shining example in my life, recognizes what the teachings of Jesus represent and what that means to them, and then, in the not-simple day-to-day living and breathing those teachings, what paths do you take, what choices do you make, what do you support, what do you not support?If there’s a schism in this country, it might be not between the people who have faith and the people who don’t have faith, but people who have faith that is, in my opinion, pure to the teachings of Jesus and people who have taken that and turned it into something for other reasons, be that power, be that intolerance or ignorance. And that’s where a schism might have occurred in this country presently.
I think this is a great message to the church to renew and reclaim following the life patterns of Jesus in our Christian practice. There is an interesting similarly with Kanye west in how his parents influence his faith. Read the full interview on Beliefnet.com
Popularity: 26% [?]
Apr 17 2006
U2 line tops favourite lyric poll
A line from U2’s 1992 hit One has been voted the UK’s favourite song lyric. The line "One life, with each other, sisters, brothers" came top of a poll of 13,000 people by music channel VH1. The song reached number seven in the UK chart when it was originally released, but a new version featuring Mary J Blige recently went to number two. A call from Bob Marley to "free our minds" in his Redemption Song came fourth,.
read the full story U2 line tops favourite lyric poll
Popularity: 13% [?]
Aug 09 2005
Nick Cannon-Can I live?
While browsing over at nykola.com I came across a reference to this song by Nick Cannon about what might have happened is he had not been a born. It is an interesting and straight forward exploration of the abortion question in popular music
Popularity: 20% [?]
Jul 09 2005
Luther Vandross
Luther Vandross is being buried today. His silky soulful voice which brought us everything from pepsi and mikey d comercials to jams like stop,a house is not a home and most recently dance with my father will be missed.
Andre
Popularity: 14% [?]
Feb 02 2005
Jesus in the music
About six years ago I started preaching every February about the spiritual and emotional issues raised in songs nominated for song of the year a the Grammy awards. this year is the first year to do it with mosaic life and there is just so much to explore. Jesus walks by kanye west if I ain’t got you Alcia keys, the reason hoobastank, and heaven Los lonely boys.
kanye west’s is up first. he straight up calls the church out for not speaking Jesus to the world and being the presence of god to the lest of these
I ain’t here to argue about his facial features
Or here to convert atheists into believers
I’m just trying to say the way school need teachers
The way Kathy Lee needed Regis that’s the way I need Jesus
and and hip-hop world for being hypocrites for rapping about any and everything but God.
So here go my single dawg radio needs this
They say you can rap-about-anything except for Jesus
That means guns, sex, lies, video tapes
But if I talk about God my record won’t get played, Huh?
Well let this take away from my spins
Which will probably take away from my ends
Then I hope it take away from my sins
And bring the day that I’m dreamin bout
Next time I’m in the club everybody screamin out
(Jesus Walks)
it begs the questions who did Jesus walk with? and who does he walk with today?
stay tuned
Popularity: 15% [?]
Jan 12 2005
the secular, Sacred & profane pt 1
In the next couple of weeks we will begin talking about images of Jesus in today’s music. As part of that experience in our worship we will be playing and listening to songs that are considered "secular" because they didn’t originate in the church or from people who are considered "Christians." The question will probably immediately come to mind why would a church do that why would a church play "secular" music in worship. Worship is supposed to be a sacred and set aside time and no place for that kind of music. I’d like to take the time to explore the my understanding of the secular sacred and profane and the reason why we will do secular songs in worship. The good the bad and the ugly. That is the way that the sacred,secular and profane have been understood for the most part in our world. The sacred is good the secular is bad and the profane is ugly. Conventional wisdom says; The sacred is what is good in God’s eyes, the secular is what is bad in God’s eyes and the profane is what is ugly in God’s eyes. Music movies and books have all been carved up and placed into these categories and their value is based on which category they fall into. The sacred has value for the spiritual journey and following Jesus and the others do. I believe that the division between sacred and secular is a creation of a particular world view of the Christian faith and doesn’t necessarily reflect way that Jesus and his first followers would understand their world and their faith in Jesus Christ. Actually many of the songs and music that we now consider sacred have their roots in what we might call the secular world. There is ancient saying that "All truth is God’s truth." In other words if there is any truth is our world it comes from God. I believe that there is truth to be found in both sacred and secular music, movies and art etc. If all truth is God’s truth and secular music speaks to the truth of our human condition and our most basic yearning then that truth is also God’s truth. The distinction between sacred and secular is non existent if we accept that there is no truth that exists in the world apart from God’s truth. So if there is any truth, even the smallest amount in our popular music, movies or books then it is also God’s truth even though it may not be the whole truth. So what is ultimate truth where do we go to find the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? As I Jesus follow a take seriously Jesus words "I am the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6John 14:6
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life!” Jesus answered. “Without me, no one can go to the Father.). Ultimate truth is having a personal relationship with Jesus and following his life patterning our lives. However, truth that points to the ultimate truth can be found in sacred and secular music. Popular music along with movies and other art forms are asking many deep and important spiritual questions. Questions that express the deepest yearnings of human beings and give us a glimpse of God’s truth. When we engage these questions and speak to these yearnings we can be lead to the ultimate truth of God’s love for us embodied in Jesus, God’s truth in the flesh. Followers of Jesus, people of faith, the church needs to be in the conversation. We need to listen to the questions and acknowledge the yearnings and recognize them as valid starting points for exploring the ultimate truth of God which we know through Jesus. In February we will continue our exploration worship experiences focused on the search for Jesus by exploring images of from current music. We will unpack the spiritual yearnings and questions of faith in four Grammy nominated songs. If I ain’t Got You by Alicia Keys, Jesus Walks by Kanye West, Reason by Hoobastank and Heaven by Los Lost Boys. In the process we will hold these question and yearnings up to the light of the ultimate truth found in Jesus.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Oct 04 2004
rappers can holler out the gospel
Mike Eric Dyson and Tavis Smiley talk about gospel in rap and R&B music
Popularity: 8% [?]
Sep 21 2004
Kanye West: “I didn’t find Jesus, my parents gave him to me…”
if you haven’t seen them yet kanye west jesus walks videos have been playing on mtv for a while now. there are three very different videos
relevant magazine has a summary of all the videos with some spiritual/scriptural connections.
i blogged about this accidental hip-hop prophet previously. he is sharing his spiritual journey in the hip-hop media
i think west is a perfect example of how the postmodern/emergent culture is represented in the african - american community. check this
[Chorus]
Jesus Walk- God show me the way because the devil tryna break me down
Jesus Walk With Me- The only thing that I pray iz that my feet don’t fail me now
Jesus Walk-And I don’t think theres nothing I could do now to right my wrongs
Jesus Walk With Me-I wanna talk to God but im afraid cuz we aint spoke in so long..I ain’t?t here to argue about his facial features
Or here to convert atheists into believers
I’m just tryna say the way school need teachers
The Way Kathy Lee needed Regis…thats the way i need Jesus.
So here go my single dawg, radio needs this
They said they could rap about anything except for jesus
That means guns, sex, lies, videotape
But if I talk about God my record wont get played, huh?
Well if this take away from my spinz…which will prolly take away my endz..
Then i hope it take away from my sinz and bring the day that im dreamin bout…
Next time im in the club, erybody screaming out…
no trippin about the stuff that church folks stress about "what did jesus look like?"just focus on what really matters we need jesus and he walks with us!
preach brotha
Popularity: 14% [?]
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